The invention relates to a device for automatically rinsing milking systems with automatic rinsers, with the milk drawn into a constantly vacuumized milk collector upstream of a constantly vacuumized sanitary trap during milking and the rinsing solution drawn into the same milk collector during rinsing, the milk or the rinsing solution being conveyed onward by a sluice with a float that, when liquid is entering, activates valves that shut off a vacuum line between the sluice and the milk collector and open a line containing a ball valve leading out to the atmosphere.
The rinsing of milking systems of this type with automatic rinsers is known. The rinsing solution is drawn out of a preliminary-run line coming from the automatic rinser, through the milking clusters into the milk line, and back into the automatic rinser through the milk collector and sluice.
Air is periodically admitted into the preliminary-run line to improve cleaning, generating what are called water columns, which especially promote rinsing. The activity of the water column ends at the milk collector, however, because the rinsing solution can be let off into the sluice only under hydrostatic pressure.
This means that only the bottom of the sluice will be wetted with rinsing solution, and the sluice in a known milking system must be cleansed manually to prevent the milk from becoming infected.
Attempts have been made to find a way of rinsing the top of the sluice as well by positioning a connecting line between the preliminary-run line of the automatic rinser and the top of the sluice. Since, however, the sluice is powered alternately by a vacuum and by atmospheric pressure, the periodic admission of air into the preliminary-run line of the automatic rinser during the vacuum phase causes the vacuum to break down in the sluice and the sluice to malfunction. Since air is drawn out of the sluice through the connecting line during the phase of atmospheric-pressure build-up, atmospheric pressure is not completely attained in the sluice and the liquid can not be sluiced out.
Since milk vapor and spurts of milk can produce concentrations of bacteria in the sanitary trap as well, this vessel must also be cleaned. It is therefore desirable, to avoid complicated manual labor, to include the sanitary trap in the rinsing system as well.
A milking system known from German Pat. No. 2 335 877 has a conveyor pump downstream of the milk collector, connecting the bottom run-off of the sanitary trap with the suction side of the pump through a gate that is closed during milking and open during rinsing, while a branch line with a relatively small cross-section leads from the pressure side of the pump and opens into the top of the sanitary trap. The disadvantage of this solution is that the lines leading from the pump to the sanitary trap must be emptied by hand before cleaning and the gate subsequently opened. Such manual operations can lead to mishandling that can make both the milking and the rinsing functions of the milking system problematic.